


USS Arcadia

by TheCrazyFriend



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Star Trek
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2019-11-01 22:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17875964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrazyFriend/pseuds/TheCrazyFriend
Summary: Set in the aftermath of Star Trek Destiny (trilogy)...





	1. Chapter 1

“Captain’s Log, USS Arcadia. Stardate 59549.11, Acting Captain Price speaking. What a fucking mess. Oops probably shouldn't swear in my captain's log. Eh. Anyway, what a fucking mess. Planets after planets have been decimated... Holy shit” there was a gentle cough that could have been covering a sob. “I don't know what the _hell_ happened but suddenly I was being yanked out of the brig by some blonde babe who I vaguely recall from officer classes at Blackwell Academy where Starfleet send fast-tracked officers, before I ended up getting my ass kicked out since I was too high most days after I lost my father and best friend. That woman was one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, the other being... Nevermind. Anyway, again, I was shoved out on to the bridge before my old CO from the academy. I have to admit, _Commodore_ Wells always seemed to hate me but at that moment he gave me an appraising look and well sent me down to engineering where I was ordered to prep the warp drive on this here fancy vessel. Before I could, the entire ship was overwhelmed by Borg, yes, _Borg_ and they quickly assimilated their way through the entire ship yet for some reason they couldn't get into engineering. Of all things a Borg shield had extended itself around engineering, keeping me and a handful of crew safe. Suddenly all the Borg were uh... Transformed by something. If not even the dreadnought class USS Arcadia could stop the Borg then what the _fuck_ could?”

The Captain was interrupted by a beep from the door, someone requesting entry. “Captain?”  
“Ah Steph, come on in” Chloe turned to smile at her acting second-in-command  
“Chloe, we have been ordered to investigate strange goings-on at the edge of the known galaxy”  
“Ugh. Fuck, have you managed to tear apart that shit in engineering that protected us from the Borg?” The blue-haired Captain pinched her nose in frustration at Starfleet Command’s decision to send them off on some mission that didn't really matter after the Federation almost suffered a total loss  
“It seems like several engineering systems have had Borg enhancements, that's on top of the transphasic torpedoes and the ablative armor” Steph explained  
“Well, shit. You need to liaise with what's left of the crew, get this here ship up together and running. Don't forget to check which way the wind is blowin’ before ye hoist the sails!!”  
“Aye aye, Cap’n!!” Steph’s stern stoic gaze devolved into a fit of giggles. It had been a very long time since she had laughed like that, she hadn't laughed since before she met up with Chloe again, not since the Borg had begun their invasion. Commodore Wells had been given the USS Arcadia, rechristened after one of the first planets to fall in the initial wave of the Borg invasion. The Arcadia had been recalled from its mission and ordered to provide a defensive line between the Borg and Sector 001 but had been overwhelmed within moments, the transphasic torpedoes had been adapted to and only the ablative armor was left as a defense. Chloe, having been arrested on an earlier mission had been sent to engineering since she was one of the most gifted engineers of her generation, maybe even exceeding the great Scotty in her prowess  
“I'm glad I'm good at making you laugh, lieutenant”  
“Me too, Captain”

A few moments passed and Chloe sobered up. “Would you believe it though, I finally made it off that blasted planet and away from those idiots who wanted to capture me only to find myself in the brig of this monstrosity?”  
“Bluebeard never did have much luck, Captain. All the same, I'm glad it's her who is leading us to ultimate victory against the spacial anomalies”  
“Fuck. Captain Bluebeard sails again. Wish you could see me now, Max...” Chloe went quiet at the thought of her missing best friend  
“Captain...? Captain!” Steph waved her hand in front of Chloe's face and the blue-haired former punk blinked a few times and shook her head  
“Oh yeah? What?”  
“You drifted away for a second then”  
“Right you are, how’s Commander Amber?”  
“Caught somewhere between alive and dead, Captain” Steph replied uneasily, “the Borg got her with one of their assimilation tubules yet her luck was far greater than anything you could ever hope for. Almost as soon as she was injected the Borg... Transformed”  
“Mhm, and its been several weeks since... She's been in a coma this whole time?”  
“Uh huh”  
“I'll come to speak to the doctor later”  
“Okay, Chloe”  
“Anything else?”  
“No other than Admiral Prescott requesting you contact him”  
“Oh boy, not again. That pompous prick almost destroyed the entire federation when he suggested that we surrender. Thanks to the crews of the Enterprise, Titan and Aventine his mewling pleas weren't heeded in the end but still, him and that Jefferson guy are responsible for most of our problems”  
“He did say it was urgent” Steph relayed  
“Right. You're dismissed, lieutenant” Steph about-faced and left the ready room while Chloe made contact with Starfleet Command

“Chloe Price”  
“Yes, sir, Admiral Prescott?”  
“After all these years I never thought I'd see you again” Nathan Prescott sat in his office at Starfleet Command facing the lifesize holographic projector installed in his office, Chloe looked around, finding herself actually in the office, it was being projected around her by the holographic systems in her ready room  
Chloe, uninterested in the Admiral’s posing and the showing off of his sizable yet cozy office back on earth, turned to face him almost immediately. “Can we cut to the chase please, sir. I have a lot of work to do, a lot of damage to repair and the sole survivor of the command staff is stuck in some kind of coma. There’s also a shitton of adrift starships whose crews need rescuing and probably medical aid. Not only that we've also been ordered to the edge of the fucking galaxy!! Could you talk to Starfleet and rescind that ridiculous order so we can help out here?”  
“I'm afraid not, I was the one who issued that order”  
“You... You were?”  
“Yes, and you are not going to be investigating any anomalies, you're going to be completing a very specific, essential mission for the Federation”  
“I-I am?”  
“Yup. Now, Captain Price, I am granting you a field commission to the rank of captain and appointing you as the Captain of the Arcadia. Your orders will be with you shortly, the USS Enterprise will rendezvous with you shortly to hand over your orders in person but in the meantime, you had better prep for warp speed and a long voyage”  
“Yes, sir”

“Lieutenant Gingrich, prepare the warp drive and set the coordinates to the ones we received earlier today, we are going for a long flight” Chloe emerged on to the somewhat dark and cramped bridge of the Arcadia and started barking orders at her skeleton crew  
“Aye aye, Cap'n!!” replied a chorus of voices


	2. Chapter 2

“Quantum Slipstream Drive is stable, Cap'n. Estimated time of arrival is eighty hours” Steph smiled at Chloe while she walked to the engineering station on the bridge.  
“Fuck. Eighty hours, really?” Chloe sat back in her captain’s chair, tossing her legs carelessly over the side. “Fine. Let's go” she waved her hand carelessly and Steph engaged the Slipstream Drive from the engineering station, rolling her eyes as she did so. Chloe showed absolutely none of the prim and proper attitude that a starship Captain was supposed to show. Despite being a bit of a slob, as evidenced by how she took to relaxing in the captain's chair and how she insisted that most of the formalities on board the starship, at least those concerning herself, were disbanded, she was a hard worker who pitched in and personally did a lot of the work required to get the starship back up together after the Borg had made a mess of it and assimilated most of its skeleton crew. Of the fifty crew, only six had survived along with Chloe. Chloe had promptly assigned the rest of the crew to the various positions she deemed necessary though at first, she had gotten everyone to work on repairing the Arcadia. Prescott had been impressed by how Chloe had taken charge and had decided to award her the rank of captain at which point Chloe finalized her crews’ official duties.

The Arcadia had been forced to wait for the Enterprise and when the Sovereign-class starship had finally arrived, one of the heroes of the Borg Invasion, not to mention one of Chloe's heroes, Captain Jean-Luc Picard beamed over to the Arcadia. “Captain Picard, an honor to finally meet you” Chloe smiled at him genuinely, no sign of her trademark teasing and mirthful smirk. _Be cool, Chloe... Not often you meet one of your heroes_  
“Captain Price” Picard smiled at the young woman. “Shall we go to your Ready Room? The orders that I have been entrusted with are incredibly sensitive”  
“So I hear from none less than Vice Admiral Prescott”  
“He did talk to you then? I know his old man, Sean. Ahem, excuse me, I meant _Fleet Admiral_ Prescott”  
Chloe chuckled, her mirthful grin back in place, “don't worry, Captain, I won't tell if you don't”  
“Quite. Your ready room, Captain?”  
“Call me Chloe, Captain. I still don't like this formality crap”  
“Okay, Chloe”

Chloe led Picard to the Ready Room. Several of the crew had called out ‘Cap'n!' as they passed.  
“You seem fairly friendly with your crew, Captain Price”  
“Of course... I never liked how Starfleet expected you to act, that's partially why I left when I did.” The crew was more referring to Chloe's history of wishing of being a pirate Captain than her actually being a bona fide Starfleet Captain though she didn't admit as much to Picard. Steph Gingrich had been the one to share stories of Chloe's past with the remaining crew who were mostly a few years younger than their new Captain and the nickname 'Cap'n’ had originated from that  
“I see...” Picard turned to face Chloe. “Anyway, your orders are to head to the edge of the galaxy where one of our research facilities is based. Set up in Captain Kirk's era, this research facility became home to a lot of the Federation’s cutting edge research. Once there, you are to download the data they have gathered as well as collect the body of one of the scientists”  
“The body?” Chloe turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “How come a science vessel like the Titan couldn't be sent, they have a Quantum Slipstream Drive like the Arcadia and are probably better equipped to deal with a scientific mission like that than a warship like Arcadia”  
“Quite... Only, the Arcadia was requested due to the supposed... Ah, importance of the research carried out by the team. Its enhanced defenses are considered to be essential to the success of the mission”  
“But I thought that President Whatshername had brokered a treaty with the major powers”  
“President Bacco has, but it's fragile” Picard had replied  
“I see” Chloe nodded quickly, having felt the situation between the two of them get awkward

“I would quite like to meet the rest of your crew, Chloe” Picard began after he had handed over an isolinear chip with the exact details of the Arcadia's mission on it  
“Sure, Captain” Chloe smiled, putting the isolinear chip down on her desk and summoning her crew to the bridge for Picard to meet them.  
Chloe led Picard down the small lineup of her crew. “This is Steph Gingrich, my Chief Engineer and Acting First Officer” Steph smiled and nodded at Picard as she was introduced. “David Madsen, Chief Of Security and Acting Second Officer,” Madsen and Picard shook hands briefly. “Conn and Operations Officer, Brooke Scott.” She merely smiled at Picard from behind her red and black bangs. “Senior Science Officer, Warren Graham.” Warren gripped Picard’s hand eagerly and attempted to engage the Captain in a science talk only to be cut off by Chloe. “And finally, the Arcadia’s Chief Medical Officer, Samantha Myers.” The shy brunette looked down nervously, her awkward nature making it difficult for her to maintain eye contact with Picard  
“You said Acting First Officer?” Picard had turned away from Samantha with a small frown on his face  
“Oh yeah, First Officer Amber is in a coma after she was partially assimilated”  
“Ah... Well, how about I ask my Chief Medical Officer to have a look at her before you get going? There's only seven of you so I guess you'd really need all hands on deck despite the advanced artificial intelligence and bioneural systems in your starship.” Picard was one of the very few people who knew the Arcadia's class, the Dreadnought-Class, could be controlled by a single person if necessary but it was far from standard practice and the Arcadia was typically manned by at least fifty people  
“Thank you, Captain Picard. That would be very much appreciated and I'm sure Rachel will appreciate it too”  
“Captain Price... Chloe, make it so.” He smiled at Chloe then tapped his comm badge. “Captain Picard to Commander Worf, one to beam back”

Two hours later, the Slipstream Drive had been engaged and they started their long journey to the edge of the galaxy. “Well, I'm going down to see how Rachel is doing. I hope Doctor crusher had some success” she grimaced, leaving the bridge to go and visit the sickbay. “Holy shit” Rachel, who had been in a deep coma and had been surrounded by equipment to not only clean her blood of the nanites that had been transformed by the Caeliar but also to monitor every parameter of her health as well as taking over essential functions such as breathing and her heart, was led on her bed with both the mark IV Emergency Medical Hologram and Samantha Myers standing over her. The monitoring equipment, however, had been removed  
“Captain” the EMH had looked up and smiled. “You will be pleased to hear that whatever the hell happened to her after the Borg were defeated has been put right by Doctor Crusher. She extracted the catoms and Commander Amber is out of danger”  
“Excellent news. I hope she'll wake up in the next eighty hours or so, I could do with her assistance”  
“Captain” Samantha began, “Commander Amber will require a lot of rest, she is healing from the damage caused by the semi assimilation but she's most likely to be weakened by the experience”  
“Fine, fine” Chloe couldn't help but look disappointed by the news that Rachel wouldn't yet be ship shape, she was one of only two crew members that she actually knew, the other being Steph. “Let me know the moment she wakes, Sam. Please?”  
“Sure, Captain” With Samantha's agreement, Chloe turned, left the sickbay and headed toward the gym that had been set up in one of the many empty areas in the Arcadia. 

_I hope Rachel wakes soon, it’s pretty bad only having one person who knows you and three others who don't know you as anything other than a Captain or an outlaw who should be kept in a brig at all times_


	3. Federation Research Sector

“We are approaching the research sector, Cap'n”  
“Okay, Brooke. Prepare to power down the Slipstream drive, we cannot enter the sector unless we're at sublight speeds.” Chloe ordered from her captain's chair  
“Understood, slowing to point five C, now!” Brooke pulled back on a lever that slowed the massive starship down, the protective ablative armor automatically moving to cover the deflector dish and the weapon systems automatically engaging  
“I thought I asked you to remove that coding, Gingrich!” Chloe snapped. Chloe was fed up of the warship automatically engaging its weapon systems as it came out of Slipstream. That alone increased the chances of an aggressive confrontation  
“Sorry, Cap'n,” Steph replied. “That coding is deep in the system, I've literally had to copy the entirety of the protected memory over to an auxiliary core to attempt to find out where that is. I searched the entire defensive systems and the warp drive systems for it, no luck yet.” Steph whinged  
“Fine, power down the phasers, hopefully, we won't need them.”

“Captain Chloe Price of the USS Arcadia to Central Command, Federation Research Sector”  
“This is Central Command, Commander Victoria Chase speaking. What is your purpose, USS Arcadia?”  
“I have been sent here under orders from Vice Admiral Prescott.”  
“I see, well send your authorization codes within two minutes or we will open fire”  
_Jesus Christ... Calm your fucking tits!_ “Understood. Send authorization codes, Brooke”  
“Working on it. Connection established and codes located. Oh wow, these dudes are real paranoid, they need a captain's authorization to access the codes”  
“One minute” Victoria's disembodied voice echoed around the Arcadia's bridge  
“Price-Omega-Omega-Epsilon-Three-Three-Four-Seven-Two-Echo”  
“Command Authorization confirmed.” The artificial voice of the computer spoke. “Transmitting”  
“This is Commander Chase. Authorization codes accepted. Lowering system protective shields” A portion of the formerly invisible barrier surrounding the entire system became visible and disengaged  
“Holy shit they have shields that encompass the entire system” Brooke mumbled, her eyes wide. _That must be why we couldn't enter the system at warp or at slipstream speeds... The shield would've crushed our ship_  
“Wonder how much latinum that cost...” Warren’s voice echoed through the internal Comms, they had more often than not kept an open comm link to sickbay considering that Commander Amber was down there and in critical condition. Warren had set up in the sick bay to try to help find a cure to Commander Amber's condition, aiding the Chief Medical Officer however he could  
“Fuck knows,” Chloe replied to the Chief Scientist  
“What I want to know is how the hell they achieved a protective shield for an entire system” Steph added with a glint of enthusiasm  
“We all have our own priorities I guess?” Chloe mumbled only to be interrupted before she could tell everyone to pipe down  
“USS Arcadia, you have been ordered to proceed to Planet One. Once there your Captain will beam down, _alone_. You will follow the flight plan being transmitted exactly, failure to do so will result in us opening fire. Commander Chase out”

Chloe nodded at Brooke who took the Arcadia through the shield and at the maximum speed of one-quarter impulse, following the course set out in the flight plan to the millimeter. The flight took them about an hour but soon they were orbiting Planet One. They had passed many defensive turrets on their way through the system. “Captain Price ready to beam down”

She materialized in the middle of a cargo bay where one stasis chamber and an entire computer core were waiting. “Holy shit” Chloe mumbled, moving up to see if she could see into the stasis chamber.  
“Captain Price?” Chloe spun around, away from the completely sealed stasis chamber and finding herself facing Commander Chase, one of three senior officers of the Research Sector. “ _Chloe_ Price?” Victoria asked the blue-haired Captain in disbelief  
“Victoria? What are _you_ doing here?” Chloe replied, taken aback  
“I was assigned here directly after Blackwell, with all due respect, I thought you were dishonorably discharged from Blackwell, _Captain_ ” Victoria replied disdainfully  
“I was... It all happened so quickly, from fugitive to brig to engineering to Captain” Chloe replied  
“Holy shit” Victoria's eyes had widened  
“Exactly”  
“You’re not qualified to be a Captain though, _Price_ ” Victoria sneered  
“Your friend Prescott disagrees with you” Chloe replied calmly, “I ended up facing down the Borg. Like up close and personal. I was the one to advise the crew to arm themselves with projectile weapons”  
“Projectile weapons?” Victoria looked at Chloe with confusion and a rising curiosity  
“Like guns, Victoria. Guns with bullets”  
“Oh, right. How _quaint_ ” Victoria covered her own failure to consider that as an option with a hefty dose of disdain. She had read everything there was to know about the Borg, from Annika Hansen's field reports to the theoretical work of Annika Hansen's parents. Somehow she and a lot of others had missed that old fashioned guns would be able to harm the Borg despite their shields since they were not energy weapons that could be adapted to. Internally, Victoria was kicking herself for being so stupid, how many people could she have saved had she just firstly _realized_ , it had been in Captain Picard's log regarding the first contact mission in 2065 after all and secondly _told someone_  
“It’s only due to that and the Borg shields around the key areas, along with the Arcadia's AI that allowed me and the others to survive, Chase. Meanwhile, you and your research team were out of the way doing fuck knows what behind your shields”  
Victoria simply stared at Chloe, while Chloe has always been confrontational and had always appeared to be self-assured, she had never had an air of authority to it before. “Captain Price...” she began meekly. Quickly snapping herself out of it she spoke again. “The rest of your orders from Vice Admiral Prescott are to take this computer core and stasis chamber back to Starfleet Command. I don't need to remind you of the importance of this mission”  
“Quite.” Chloe rolled her eyes  
“Oh and Price, don't go nosing through this stuff” Victoria warned  
“Wouldn't dream of it”  
“It’s all locked to require an Admiral's authorization anyway, specifically Fleet Admiral Prescott”  
“Hm, so I'll be off. Chloe to Arcadia, one to beam up”

Chloe quickly arranged for the stasis chamber and computer core to be beamed to one of the many hangers which she promptly sealed to allow only Captain and above. “What the fuck is on that?” Steph asked  
“No clue, Steph. Chloe to bridge, let's get going, Brooke, time to go home”  
“Aye aye, Cap'n” Brooke's reply came almost immediately


	4. Chapter 4

“I don't like this...” the Chief Medical Officer looked at the stasis chamber, “I can't access it”  
“And that's a problem, Sam?” Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow, she was still mostly unsure of what she was doing and was still learning on the job  
“Yes. This stasis chamber had to be transferred to my authority as the Chief Medical Officer of the Arcadia, it's Starfleet regulation.” Sam explained to the inexperienced Captain. “Whoever is in there is my patient and I cannot access it”  
“It's something to do with Fleet Admiral Prescott, Sam” Chloe admitted as an explanation to her Medical Officer  
“Oh. Him, he never did like me” Sam whispered with a frown, “even though I tried to be a good friend to his son, Nathan”  
“Don't think he likes many people” Chloe muttered

“I don't like this, Cap’n, I can't access any of the files either, all locked down.” A mere ten minutes later, Chloe and Sam were joined by the Chief Science Officer who was attempting to access the files on the core, also in an attempt to access the stasis chamber  
“That's not surprising really” Chloe shrugged. “But I have a bad feeling about this. Hack it”  
“Ma’am?” the science officer tilted his head, reverting to formality under the unexpected circumstances  
“Hack the motherfucking thing, that's an order”  
“Aye aye, Ma’am”  
Captain Price walked out of the cargo bay where the computer core was standing, the small stasis chamber by its side was dwarfed in comparison to the gigantic core. The Chief Science Officer, Warren, knelt next to the core and started fiddling with the isolinear chips stored within the device. “Damnit” he hissed as a force field activated around the core, preventing further fiddling. “Shit. Cap'n's gonna kill me”

“Captain Price” The man on the display spoke with a complete lack of emotion and an air of distant disinterest  
“Fleet Admiral Prescott, sir” Chloe frowned at the man  
“I understand you have picked up the core?” he spoke, still with the lack of interest  
_What about the scientist?_ “Yes, sir. We've also picked up the body of the scientist as ordered” Prescott wanted his hand dismissively, making it clear he didn't really care about the lost life. _Fuck, I knew he was a cold-hearted bastard but..._ Chloe felt her temper rising at the Admiral's complete lack of interest  
“Their sacrifice was for the greater good of the Federation”  
“Suuuure. What was their name then?”  
Prescott merely shrugged. “I haven't got time to memorize every scientist’s name, if they even have one”  
“If they even have one?? What's that supposed to...”  
“Prescott out” The man disconnected the communion link, cutting Chloe off. She growled in irritation, less than impressed with Prescott. Standing up, she kicked the desk a few times in her irritation at Prescott  
“That was fucking weird” Chloe rubbed her forehead. _I know who’ll be able to clear this up_. She sat back down at her desk in her ready room, thinking hard about how to phrase what she had to ask. “Computer, open comm link to the Research Sector” the computer beeped. “Captain Price to Research Sector, please respond”  
“This is Lieutenant Christiansen, go ahead, Captain Price”  
“Where’s Commander Chase?”  
“She's in her office, I'm her assigned assistant”  
“Well... I need to talk to her, immediately”  
“I'll see if she has time, can you hold?”  
_Fuck..._ “Sure”

Five minutes later the lieutenant returned with Commander Chase. “Price”  
“Ah, Icky Vicky” Chloe leaned into the screen, “one of your officers died, right?”  
“Uh... No?” the pixie blonde scratched her head, once again baffled by the questions and actions of the blue-haired Captain. _What the fuck?_  
“Then what the fuck is in that status chamber?”  
“I was told it was biosamples”  
“That doesn't make sense. If it was, they wouldn't have made it impossible to access and would've given us a manifest. I don't like this, Vicky”  
“Price, what are you planning?”  
“Oh, nothing”  
Victoria was about to speak, to call Chloe out on her bullshit when Warren opened a comm line to the Captain. “Cap'n!! Cap'n!! Get down here now, you have gotta see this!!”  
“Sorry, Commander Chase. I'll talk later, Price out”


	5. Discovery

“Yes, Sam, what is... Oh my god!!” Chloe had stopped in her tracks and was staring down at the young woman contained in the stasis chamber. Sam and Steph had managed to get the stasis chamber open even though the device was still working and had discovered the body of a young woman in the stasis chamber. According to the information showed in the internal diagnostic screens, she wasn’t even dead like they had initially been led to believe  
“We don't know her name, all that was with her was this” Sam held up an old fashioned piece of paper that had been shoved in the chamber. She had to balance the note she was holding out with the medical tricorder she was also holding  
“One of Twelve, Primary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One” Steph repeated the words back from memory while looking at the drone with concern. _This can't be good... They've essentially had access to everything that's ever been in the collective..._  
“This Borg was effectively the queen's right-hand drone” Chloe mumbled, her face paling at what she imagined the Fleet Admiral could do with the knowledge that was no doubt stored in the drone's cortical implant and neural processors  
“Sam and I think that somehow this stasis chamber prevented the Caelier tech from releasing this drone.” Steph theorized, “We have no idea of their true identity though”  
Chloe nodded, _better keep her in stasis for now then_. “How are Warren and you doing on decrypting the core, Steph?”  
“We’re slowly getting there, it's complex but Warren is such a techie”  
“Good... Keep me updated” Chloe smiled and headed back toward the turbolift to return to the bridge

*****

“Holy fuck...” Steph had mumbled the expletive a few hours after they had gained access to the stasis chamber, she and Warren had just hacked their way past the last security protocol, the isolinear chips they had been using to attempt to gain access were scattered around her and Warren was sat on the floor on the other side of the device having just successfully overridden the security  
“Huh?” Warren's head poked around the core and his body followed a few seconds later  
“Computer!!” Steph exclaimed, “Initiate emergency slipstream shutdown protocol!!”  
“Command confirmed” the emotionless voice of the computer replied, “calculating safe exit vector and shutting down slipstream drive”  
“Fuck... We can't let this get into anyone else's hands, Warren...” Steph mumbled, ordering one of her engineering staff to pull out a few isolinear chips in the slipstream matrix  
“I agree, Commander”

“Bridge to Gingrich...” Captain Price’s voice echoed through the cargo bay they were in, the drone had been removed to the sick bay considering that it was still alive but the computer core remained in the cargo bay. “Why the fuck did you drop my ship out of slipstream and lock out the controls to get the damn thing online again?” Steph winced at the aggressiveness in Chloe's voice, she was understandably grumpy  
“I'm sorry, Captain, but we found out why Prescott is so interested in this... Why they had a Borg drone in a lab, why it looked like the drone had been subjected to unnecessary medical procedures” Warren explained  
“This had better be good...” Chloe grumbled in reply  
“We’ll meet you in sickbay, Captain.”  
“Alright, if there isn't a damn good reason as to why the fuck you two have dropped us out of slipstream, I swear to fucking god I'll personally kick you both off my ship...” Since they were still over sixty hours from Starfleet Command by slipstream, both Steph and Warren knew that if she did kick them off the ship, they'd be in for an eternally long wait as only a few starships were kitted out with slipstream drives and they all had important duties to attend to. They would have to wait for a traditional warp capable ship to arrive, something that wouldn’t occur before they died of old age.


	6. Sixteen years

“The scientists have been torturing this drone.” Was the Chief Engineer’s opinion of what she had uncovered. “That's how they were able to determine what ships to give the transphasic torpedoes to and where all the Borg tech on this ship came from as it is a Section Thirty-One ship and this drone had access to a temporal transmitter, they used time travel against the Borg and have been since the very beginning. They burned out all the drone's communication nodes and then harvested nanites and so on, even going as far as having a Vulcan mind-meld with her. They had direct access to her memories as a Borg though little remained of who she was before she was assimilated. All we know is that it was about sixteen years ago” Steph listed off Section Thirty-One’s crimes against the drone contained within the stasis chamber. “She's been with Thirty-One for about a year now” Steph concluded  
“Hm, thanks Steph. So you dropped my ship out of slipstream because of unethical experiments and... Hold up, _temporal_ transmitter?”  
“Yes, ma’am. We, that is Warren and I believe the Federation’s entire history with the Borg are as a result of Thirty-One’s meddling.  
“Holy shit” Chloe was astounded by the news, she had thought that the unethical shit had been eradicated centuries ago  
“That’s not all, Captain”  
“Oh?”  
“Prescott wants to weaponize Borg tech... And distribute it out to the fleet”  
“That would certainly increase the fleet's punch, perhaps we should let him”  
“Then conquer the galaxy”  
“Ah”

“FUCK!!” Steph kicked the computer core then spent the next minute hopping around on one foot, much to Chloe's amusement. “Thanks for your concern, Chloe. Not like I could've broken my toe or anything”  
Still chuckling, Chloe moved over to her friend. “You okay, Gingrich?”  
“Yea. Fuck you too, Chloe” Steph grumbled. “Yet another layer of encryption!” she hissed out in exasperation, revealing exactly what had pissed her off  
“Another one?”  
“Yep... Ah, hang on... Got it!!” Steph exclaimed triumphantly. “What the... _Fuck_?” Steph’s previously jubilant attitude faded into one of horror and concern. “Chloe... You'd better come look at this like right now”  
“What?” Chloe hurried over to the computer core and took the padd that Steph was offering  
“Professor Jefferson, project log. Stardate forty-three six-ninety point two eight” A male voice emanated from the padd attached to the computer core, displaying the image of a well-dressed man with black hair and a goatee. “Subject A of the Maximum Capability experiment was all that remained of the project, until now. They missed their check-in and their ship's cloaked transponder beacon stopped transmitting a few light-years before they reached Betazed, we have no idea what happened. We have dispatched a starship but we won't hear back from them for a few hours. It is more than likely that they merely stopped off at a nearby star system to check out the local wildlife, Subject A has some... Ah, archaic hobbies. Aside from the rather dull hobby selection, Subject A is our best chance to defeat the Cardassians, Romulans and whoever else dares to cross our path. We’re very much playing the long game here and if the Federation catch whiff of what we at Thirty-One are up to, we’ll get shut down, the project and most likely the whole section”  
_Wow, what a windbag_ Chloe grumbled as the male voice continued prattling on.  
“As reported to you, Mr. Prescott” Steph and Chloe shared a look, it wouldn't be good news if Prescott was somehow involved. So entranced by the man’s official log both Chloe and Steph were totally unaware that a third person had joined them in the hanger. “This project relies on absolute secrecy since the ban on eugenics since the whole thing with Khan Noonian Singh”  
“Eugenics?” _Oh shit. Genetic manipulation?_  
“Subject A has exceeded all expectations as far as testing is concerned. On the journey to Betazed, Subject A was extensively tested and was found to exceed all expectations in strength, intelligence, combat and social tests, they are impressive. She truly is _evolved_ and ready for the next stage and as such I had ordered them to the Federation Research Sector a few hours ago though we now know they never even arrived at Betazed”  
Chloe shared a glance with Steph, they didn't need to put into words what they were both thinking  
“What’s up with you two?” a melodious voice asked, causing both Starfleet officers to leap six feet into the air  
“Rachel! Don't fuckin' do that!!” Chloe grasped her chest and the blonde giggled mischievously.  
“Chloe Price, back in Starfleet” the blonde stated in disbelief  
“Not by choice, I assure you” Chloe grumped

Rachel shook her head, she had been briefed by the Chief Medical Officer Sam Myers on Rachel's insistence and therefore knew about the top secret mission, the Borg tech on the Arcadia, the computer core and the Borg Drone. “And I thought I knew how much of an _asshat_ Prescott senior was” she spared a glance at the stasis chamber then shook her head only broken out of her thoughts by an anguished scream, the likes of which she had never heard before. Lifting her head, Rachel realized that the scream had come from the person she had least expected it to, the blunette Captain. _What the fuck??_  
“Chloe... Chloe, you weren't to know”  
“That's exactly the fucking problem, Gingrich!! I had no idea that this shit was going down”  
“You were a kid, Chloe”  
“Sixteen years... It's been sixteen years”  
Rachel cleared her throat, a mistake because she then saw the anguish on the blunette captain’s face, the tears streaming from her eyes, the snot from her nose. “What the hell is going on?”  
Steph merely glared at the blonde First Officer telling her without words to _back. the fuck. off_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot thickens. Any theories?


	7. Chapter 7

“First officer’s personal log, stardate... whatthefuckever.” There was a pause as the woman considered her words carefully. “Captain Price stormed off, after which I was asked not so politely to clear off and to leave the Captain alone... Gingrich is the second-best engineer in the whole of Starfleet, quite possibly the galaxy but I have no idea what to make of her bossing me around like that. Then again she has known the Captain for longer than I have, only person who knew her longer was... _No way_. It _can't_ have been...” Rachel bolted upright at the possibility. One exclaimed “Holy _fuck_!!” later the blonde was charging toward the door of her quarters. The upper echelons of the crew had rather spacious quarters considering the purpose of the Arcadia; a warship, Rachel and Chloe had more of a suite each than quarters and both were buried in the heart of the ship to provide the best protection possible. Their quarters were served by a private turbolift that provided access to both the main bridge and battle bridge but Rachel ignored it in favor of the more public turbolift. “Main engineering”

A click and about ten seconds of whooshing later, Rachel stepped out of the turbolift on to the main engineering deck where the main feature was the absolutely gigantic warp reaction chamber which provided the ship with its warp drive and its main power, alongside that and behind massive blast doors was the ships primary propulsion system, the quantum slipstream drive that was completely inert and not giving off the faint glow Rachel had become accustomed to. “Steph!”  
“Commander Amber” the Chief Engineer had her head stuck inside a panel so her voice was slightly muffled. She pulled herself out and stood, flecks of muck covering her face. “What can I do for you? I'm used to having an engineering team of at least fifteen so can we work and talk?”  
“Sure. Steph, what's going on?”  
“... Fuck” Steph, despite saying she wanted to keep working dropped her tools and leaned against a nearby panel. “Rachel..” Steph warned  
“It's _her_ isn't it?” the blonde asked  
There was a beeping interrupting them before Steph could answer. “Commander Amber to the bridge” the disembodied voice of their conn officer came through crisp and cool  
Rachel growled in annoyance and stepped away. “This conversation is not over” she warned and retreated toward the turbolift, arriving on the bridge moments later

“Brooke”  
“Commander. A long-range shuttle is requesting permission to dock”  
“What the hell?” Rachel scratched her head, bemused. _Another weird occurrence in an otherwise dull day_. Rachel almost scoffed at her own internal sarcasm  
“They insist” Brooke replied, her usual monotone already grating against Rachel's calm. Rachel could only handle Brooke in small doses  
“Fineeee... I'll head down to the main shuttlebay. Request that Madsen join me there”  
“Yes, Commander.” Brooke debated for a moment before speaking again. “Commander? Where's Captain Price?”  
_Careful, Brooke. That almost sounded like an emotion_ “Fuck knows, she not answering comms?” Rachel sighed, she wanted that day to end so badly. _She's done a runner and hidden somewhere in the bowels of the ship, again. That’d be my guess_  
“Nope”  
“Computer, locate Captain Price”  
“Captain Price is not aboard this starship” the computer’s cold unemotional voice replied immediately, only just managing to be less emotional than the human computer she was stood next to. Rachel had wondered on occasion if Brooke was, in fact, an android  
“Shit... She's probably found a hidey-hole somewhere” Rachel growled, thinking aloud. The day was turning into a hellish one. “Computer, locate Captain Price's biosigns”  
The computer beeped in confirmation then went silent for a few seconds. “Captain Price biosigns located. Aft section, deck forty-six.”  
“What the fuck are you doing down there, Chloe?” Rachel shook her head then headed out of the bridge toward the nearest turbolift that’d get her to the main shuttlebay

*****

“Madsen”  
“Commander Amber” the man nodded at her before turning his attention back to the shuttle.  
“What the _FUCK_?!” A posh and clipped yet disdainful voice exclaimed, having been caught off guard by the military man's phaser being pointed at her head  
“ _Victoria_!?” Rachel exclaimed, the poor blonde was even more confused than she had been a few moments ago  
“Amber. Would you mind telling your lapdog to stand down!?” Rachel rolled her eyes and glanced at David who growled and glared at Victoria but lowered his phaser all the same. A pair of blue eyes peeked out from the shuttle, clearly nervous at being in a room with an active phaser pointed in her direction. “Sweet-T, Court, come on out you two, the phaser is safe”  
The two young women collided with each other, eager to please their commander. “Ow!!” the blonde exclaimed once she pushed the brunette off of her. “Ditzy beeeatch”  
“Commander Amber, these two are Lieutenant Courtney Wagner and Lieutenant Commander Taylor Christiansen. The three timid bitches cowering away in the cockpit are Dana Ward and Juliet Watson, two infiltrators I discovered going through my office, they're in there along with my Chief Medical Officer”  
“I don't quite follow” Rachel mumbled  
“We're here to help”

Rachel barely comprehended the floor of the shuttlebay zooming up to meet her, or was she plummeting down to meet it? The poor blonde was unconscious before she even hit the floor. _It's been a really bizarre day_.


End file.
